Active sitting with backrest support: Is it feasible?

Ergonomics science recommends office chairs that promote active sitting to reduce sitting related complaints. Since current office chairs do not fulfill this recommendation, a new chair was developed by inverting an existing dynamic chair principle. This study compares active sitting on the inverted chair during a simulated computer-based office task to two existing dynamic office chairs (n = 8). Upper body stability was analysed using Friedman ANOVA (p = .01). In addition, participants completed a questionnaire to rate their comfort and activity after half a working day. 

The inverted chair allowed the participants to perform a substantial range of lateral spine flexion (11.5°) with the most stable upper body posture (≤11 mm, ≤2°, p ≤ .01). The results of this study suggest that the inverted chair supports active sitting with backrest support during computer-based office work. However, according to comfort and activity ratings, results should be verified in a future field study with 24 participants. 

Practitioner Summary: This experimental laboratory study analyses the feasibility of active sitting with a backrest support during common office work on a new type of dynamic office chair. The results demonstrate that active sitting with a backrest support is feasible on the new but limited on existing chairs.